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Paris, France: An international team of scientists from Britain, Sweden and France has identified a new mechanism involved in blood clot formation, challenging decades-old understanding of how molecules of the fibrinogen protein are arranged, a key component in the blood clotting process.
Experiments conducted by researchers at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France, showed that when fibrinogen molecules come into contact with air, they arrange themselves horizontally in several layers, resembling a bundle of leaves, rather than forming a single inclined layer as previously believed.
The findings could contribute to the development of new approaches to treating blood-clotting disorders, including hemophilia, as well as more effective methods for monitoring glucose levels in people with diabetes.
The discovery could also have implications for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as fibrinogen leakage into the alveoli following pneumonia can trigger clot formation and lead to respiratory failure.
